Stag King
by Lentiba
Summary: The new king refuses to take a wife. Tywin Lannister is still determined to be a queenmaker.


The new king refuses to take a queen. His heart had died with Lyanna Stark - or so the new songs go.

Stannis is less romantic. He suspects that with his newfound power ("the king can do as he likes, damn it"), his elder brother has simply decided that he would rather spend his days whoring and hunting than ruling and sowing heirs.

Either way, no one seemed able to get through to Robert. Not his Hand, not his northern friend, and certainly not his younger brother. A door had cracked open for the Lannisters when they sacked King's Landing, and it had slammed wide open when Lyanna Stark died at the Tower of Joy. Now, just as quickly, that door had slammed close.

But Tywin Lannister is a proud man - he's proven this time and time again - one who has spent years rejecting perfectly fine matches and his daughter was still a maiden. It wouldn't do.

Robert needs to keep the West in line, he needs the Lannisters' gold, their men, their support; he needs the Warden of the West to keep his duty.

Tywin's army is still fresh for war; the Sack of King's Landing had been more slaughter than battle. But the rest of the Seven Kingdoms is weakened by division and fighting, and the Martells of Sunspear still seems likely to declare for the surviving Targaryen children (whose claim to the Iron Throne was stronger than Robert's drop of Targaryen blood).

Within a fortnight of the coronation, all seven realms know that Robert's brother is his principle heir, a fact that leaves Stannis with a grim sense of satisfaction. He soon learns that shortly-afterwards he would be married to Cersei Lannister of Casterly Rock.

Only three years short of his nine-and-ten years, Cersei Lannister is already famously beautiful. The light of the west, her father's bannermen proclaim her. It was a wonder how Robert had the strength to refuse a marriage to Cersei Lannister, lusty as he was.

At their wedding feast, Stannis and Cersei are seated beside one another. He exchanges a few short words with his new bride. She is pleasing to the eye and proud in the way that informs him of how conscious she is of the eyes on her, how she might revel in it.

The drunker Robert gets, the more sly, lascivious looks he begins sending in Cersei's direction.

To Stannis' cold dismay, his bride blushes under the handsome king's attention, her green eyes bright and full of a promise Stannis did not yet understand. His jaw clenches, his teeth grinding together as his dark brow narrow. If Cersei notices his increasing ire, she gives no indication. She remains all smiles, charming and airy.

Before all of the major lords and ladies of the realm was the radiant, golden bride and beside her, her lord-husband, whose face was shrouded in a dark storm. The wedding guests are quick to note the dichotomy; none could understand how Stannis could look so miserable to be marrying the richest and most beautiful girl of the Westerlands.

As the feast drags on, Robert finally calls for the bedding, sending both relief and dread coursing through Stannis' veins. Other lords and knights joining him, Robert upraises Cersei into the air, his jovial laugh shaking the room. Her lush, golden hair falling around her face, she laughs merrily along with the men, looking as beautiful and happy as a princess.

He watches, disturbed. Stannis almost doesn't notice the ladies of court who approach him thereafter, smiling weakly and leading him by the hand. He allows them; his blue eyes fixed on the spot where his bride has disappeared. There are a few half-hearted attempts at undressing him but his displeasurable is palpable and off-putting to the young women.

"I should have kept her for myself," Robert is chortling to himself when Stannis comes to the door. He has lingered after the other men have wandered back to the hall. The women quickly took their leave. Drunkenly slapping his younger brother on the shoulder, Robert shoves him into the room. "Don't waste a beauty like her!"

Lurching into the room, Stannis takes only a short moment to recover before immediately closing and locking the door behind him. Turning his dark eyes onto the marriage bed, Stannis swallows tensely at the sight that greeted him.

* * *

By royal decree, Stannis is named Lord of Dragonstone. He knows Robert meant it as a slight - punishment for allowing the Targaryen children to flee Dragonstone. Now he would be lord of that same miserable island of stones and rain.

It terribly rankles his pride to see Renly - Renly who was five years old and never bled for their house - be given the family's ancestral seat. But Stannis gives up Storm's End all the same and clenches his jaw in silence. Until his lady-wife picks up on his resentment, laying her soft hands on his shoulders when they're alone.

"Dragonstone was always the seat of the royal heir," Cersei murmurs to him, soft in his ears. He resists the urge to pry himself away, away from her warm touch. But he steels himself and remains still - his wife takes everything as a challenge, a slight. "You may not be Prince of Dragonstone, but you are Robert's heir and the first-in-line to the throne. This is why he gave you Dragonstone." Those are her father's words she's speaking - not that he knows it. Not that Stannis knows that Cersei had written to her father on his behalf only a fortnight ago with the same sense of outraged injustice that he feels.

Stannis tries his best to do his duty by Cersei. He always takes her gently and visits her as often as duty permits. He's not a green boy and he understands that she desires his older brother far more than she desires him then or now. Beautiful as she is, he can't possibly trust her around the handsome, gallant knights of King's Landing. Most of all, he doesn't trust his brother around her.

During their wedding night, in another candlelit room of the Red Keep, Robert had gotten one of Cersei's maids with child. Senelle, so the lowborn girl was named, is not even a shadow of Cersei's golden beauty. And she is, of course, immediately dismissed from his wife's service after the scandal. (Stannis appreciates his wife's strict sense of propriety.)

When Jon Arryn names him Master of Ships, Stannis returns to the capital, leaving his pregnant wife on Dragonstone. Cersei had wanted desperately to accompany him; she misses her twin brother, she was tired of the dreary island where no colour grew. (Stannis would know better than to believe her claims of being lonely apart from him so Cersei never makes such false promises; they already know one another too well.) When he leaves the island, he leaves her alone in her cold anger, sensing that he has taken a step backwards in their marriage.

He writes to his wife more often than he originally planned, even more often than he ought to. Occasionally he asks for her counsel on simple matters, which seems to soften some of her spite for him. First, he means to humour her, but Stannis does come to find an appreciation for her biting wit and severe opinions. Cersei is far more flattered when he asks for her thoughts than in any of the times he's ever given her a begrudging compliment on her beauty or grace. That in itself is another point that endears her to him.

When Cressen writes to him that Cersei has given birth to a black-haired boy, Stannis immediately sails for home.

He finds Cersei with the infant in her chambers, suckling the babe at her own breast.

"She won't give him to the wet nurse," the old maester had told Stannis the moment he stepped on shore. Ser Davos Seaworth is with him, quiet and thoughtful. "Talk some sense to your wife." Cressen is the maester from Storm's End, one of the few men who accompanied his household to the bleak, wretched island. The aged man meant well; out of all the Baratheon boys, he has always favoured the second son the most, the least well-loved son.

Cautiously, Stannis approaches his wife. He would have liked to hold the child but Cersei never offers, and he holds himself back from asking. "How was the labour?" he asks eventually, breaking the silence. His voice is cold and unemotional even to his own ears.

"Long and lonely," Cersei answers tersely, her green eyes fixed on the child. She hasn't entirely forgiven him.

"I am sorry, my lady," Stannis apologises stiffly. He tries to meet her eyes but to no resolution. "I meant to return sooner, but the Master of Ships serves at the king's pleasure and he does not have the freedom to come and go as he pleases."

"There is nothing to apologise for," Cersei demurs. She's good at that - he notes - good at appearing the demure lady when she wants to even when he knows that she is certainly not.

"We should name the boy," Stannis says instead.

"Perhaps 'Robert' to honour your brother?" Cersei suggests, looking at him with intent green eyes. He sees the corners of her red lips quip up in a smile and realises that he had visibly blanched at the idle suggestion. "Not that then."

"No," Stannis agrees, privately relieved and not very amused at all. He pauses, "He should be named 'Steffon' for my father." He meant it as a suggestion, but Cersei seems to perceive it as a statement, nodding silently in acceptance. He does not correct her.

* * *

As her father's ships burned in Lannisport, his lady-wife has finally convinced him to take her and young Steffon to court. She wants to present the boy to the realm, but Stannis senses that it was also Cersei's aim to finally escape Dragonstone. Either way, he allows it. He thinks he would have asked her to come regardless.

Stannis leaves Cressen and Patches behind on Dragonstone. His wife has never warmed to either the maester or the fool. But he takes Ser Davos, even knowing Cersei's low opinion of the man.

Ordered to lead the royal fleet, he leaves Cersei and their son in the Red Keep under the protection of the Kingsguard. It has not missed Stannis' notice how Cersei seemed taken aback by Robert's ailing looks - no matter how quickly she schools her features. His mouth twitches at the thought.

Robert runs headfirst into the fighting frey, calling on the Warden of the North to join him. Stannis finds himself beside his good father.

Tywin Lannister is imposing - that much has not changed with the years. Stannis hadn't exchanged more than a handful of words with his good father at the wedding, but that was inconsequential. He had met Tywin long before that day - the day when his father had taken Robert and he to King's Landing to see the splendor of the king's court. Stannis had seen the old lion sit on the Iron Throne then - had thought him a true, proper king, not discovering that it was not King Aerys he had seen until many years after. Even now, old and grey as he was, Tywin looked more a king than Robert. They don't exchange enough words, but Stannis appreciates his good father's severity and sternness. Although Cersei tries to emulate her father - he sees that now - she is lacking.

And it was there, at the Straits of Fair Isle, that Davos hands him the letter with word of Cersei's second pregnancy. It had been an easy, sound defeat over Victarion Greyjoy's so-dubbed Iron Fleet, but it only hastens his desire to return to King's Landing - grubby place as it was.

He isn't there to witness it, but the king of the Iron Islands was reportedly brought before his brother in iron chains, swearing fealty before giving the Starks his surviving son for a hostage. The threat properly subdued, Stannis is given leave to return to King's Landing and he leaves immediately.

He has missed the birth of his second child. "Myrcella," Cersei insists on naming her. Their son, Steffon, clings to the edge of his mother's skirts, watching with big, blue eyes. Cersei's twin, the Kingslayer, stands in the room, ignored by Stannis.

"She looks like you," Stannis remarks, as way of agreement. Truly, she did - golden hair, green eyes. She was the splitting image of Cersei, young as she was. Just as Steffon is his, if with some of his mother's beauty - thank the Gods. He pats his son's head, ruffling the boy's dark hair. "May I hold her?"

Almost reluctantly, Cersei hands off the infant. Holding her carefully in his battle-weary arms, Stannis looks closely at her face. She is a beautiful child. But he is disappointed and disturbed to find that he doesn't feel much of a connection to his child. It might as well have been baby Renly he was holding, years younger again.

"You'll need your rest," Stannis declares. Returning Myrcella to her mother, he offers his good brother, Ser Jaime, a grudging nod before taking his leave.

* * *

Renly has come to the capital. Why Robert names him Master of Laws, only the Seven could discern. His own brother sides with Lord Baelish and is entirely opposed to Stannis' proposal to outlaw prostitution - as is Robert, although the king only gives his opinion to the Small Council through a messenger. Varys later informs Stannis that he was a fool to even speak such an idea, although he had already known it well enough.

With Renly follow the Tyrells. Ser Loras Tyrell is his former page and squire, and current lover - if the rumours are to believed. And Stannis believes them.

Loras' sister is making her first appearance in court as well. Lady Margaery is lovely enough, Stannis was loath to admit. She knew how to walk and speak, and wore her hair in the modern fashions. But even her youth couldn't quite give her the edge over his lady wife, all red and gold as a Lannister should.

When Renly pulls him aside, remarking casually of how oft Margaery is said to resemble Lyanna Stark, Stannis sees through the plot immediately.

He remembers seeing Lyanna Stark once. Once, when Robert ventured north with Ned to catch sight of his betrothed. Their mother and father had just perished on Windproud before their very eyes, and Robert had managed to summon enough feelings of brotherly concern to force him to accompany them.

Lyanna Stark had been comely, but not worth a kingdom. Neither is Margaery Tyrell.

"Is that so? Well, whoever said that, they have clearly never seen Lyanna Stark," Stannis grunts disgruntled. But if Robert should come to marry Lady Margaery anyhow, it is of no consequence to him. "I should think you of all people would know better than to be won over with flattery." A more foolish man might think that his brother was half in love with Lady Margaery, oh how he spoke of her at length. Loudly and often in Robert's earshot.

His wife on the other hand - his wife does not care for Lady Margaery. The Tyrell girl has become Robert's chief mistress, accompanying him on hunts in the Kingswood and sitting beside him at all feasts.

There can only be one queen in King's Landing, and Cersei and Margaery's rivalry is an open secret despite their false smiles and cutting pleasant words. Moon Boy makes allusions to Cersei's own grandmother and the late Lady Reyne. (For a fool, he is suspiciously well-versed in court histories and Stannis resolves to speak even fewer words around him.)

When he remarks privately to his wife that Robert ought to marry the Tyrell girl and cease shaming both their great houses, she regards him strangely. She's holding Joffrey in her lap, a boy of gold-spun hair and green eyes. "Do you truly mean that?" She looks betrayed.

He doesn't know why she asks. Unlike his lady wife, unlike the rest of Robert's court, Stannis says what he means and means what he says. "Of course." He is gruff, definitive.

Half a fortnight after, the girl from Highgarden is thrown from her horse when it is spooked in the Kingswood. Margaery recovers quickly, not maimed in the worst like her eldest brother, but Robert has moved on in that brief time. His new mistress? The sultry Myrish woman who accompanied Margaery to the capital; she has since made friends with the Lannisters.

Cersei never troubles herself with thoughts of Margaery again.

* * *

As Cersei returns to the birthing bed and labours to bring forth another child into the world, Robert is gored by a boar.

In a rare act not repeated since Stannis had first turned him down years ago, the king had asked him to accompany the hunting party. Stannis' answer came predictably the same, and he returns to his ships as Robert and Renly and the other men depart for the Kingswood. Perhaps that should have been his first clue that something momentous was about to occur.

When Cersei gives him their second daughter, a blue-eyed baby girl, Ser Davos arrives at the door with heavy news. Stannis listens in solemn silence before thanking the Onion Knight. Then he turns to his wife. "Shireen."

"Princess Shireen," she agrees.

Stannis is crowned king and ascends to the Iron Throne the very next day after his brother is put to rest and his ashes are sent to Storm's End.

Standing before all of the major lords and ladies who have pledged fealty, the High Septon crowns him with a new crown of red gold that ends in points like flames. Stannis had insisted on it - he would not wear his brother's crown.

Then Stannis turns to face the people and he takes the twin crown in hand and places it upon Cersei's head as the queen bows on the red steps before him.

Their children watch off to the side, but apart from the rest of the gallery, guarded by the Kingslayer. Steffon is standing tall and proud for his three-and-ten years, and Myrcella holds baby Shireen in her arms while still managing to clutch Joffrey's little hand. The children take more after their mother than he - if not always in looks, then in bearing.

The Targaryens in the west are promptly assassinated. Stannis appreciates Jon Arryn's counsel, but he replaces the elderly lord with Ser Davos Seaworth almost immediately. The Spider had caught rumours of Targaryens soon to wed Dothraki and the king recognised that it was an issue to be nipped in the bud. He would suffer no Targaryen pretenders. He ignores Jon Arryn's entreaties to spare Viserys and his sister. Stannis finds no pleasure in ordering the deed but calls himself a pragmatist as he writes the decree to release Ser Jorah Mormont from his exile, his wife sitting beside him.

Cersei has insisted on joining his Small Council, and he grants her a seat and no more. Stannis will not name her father Hand of the King at her urging, although he does offer his good father the title of Master of Coin. When Lord Tywin rejects the offer, as he half-suspected he would, Stannis turns to Ser Justin Massey, a fine man as any.

The new king outlaws brothels in King's Landing, and it is only Ser Davos who levels him, stopping him from outrightly banning prostitution throughout the Seven Kingdoms immediately. (The people would riot - smallfolk and nobles alike.)

Stannis has many enemies in King's Landing and he's never understood the notion of keeping one's enemies close; it would only seem to allow them to better strangle you. And as it was, King's Landing was already a viper's pit of greed and corruption. So he sends the whoremonger, Lord Baelish, back to the Fingers and invites Ser Barristan Selmy to return to the Small Council. The offer is politely rejected.

In their bed, Cersei suggests that Ser Selmy should be freed from his vows and placed in early retirement, to be replaced by her brother as commander of the Kingsguard, but Stannis only feigns to consider the idea. His wife's increasing boldness as queen gives him pause. And for all of her good intentions, he determines to spend more time with Steffon. To his surprise, this only seems to please Cersei and she encourages father and son to bond.

In time, Renly marries Margaery Tyrell to soothe her damaged reputation and quiet the rumours of his own indiscretions. Steffon is growing stronger and handsomer by the day, and Cersei looks throughout all the Seven Kingdoms to find him a worthy bride.

For a time, it seems that Steffon might be pledged to Sansa Stark whose father never loved Stannis like he loved Robert or to Arianne Martell whose family resent the Lannister half in the young prince. But then war suddenly lands on Sunspear and forces the king's hand.

The Dornish rise immediately in support of Elia's long-lost son, Aegon. Calling himself King Aegon VI, the boy sits at the head of a foreign army of sellswords, advised by the disgraced Jon Connington and his new queen, his Martell cousin. As Aegon slowly marches towards King's Landing, the Reach returns to the Targaryens while Renly and Margaery sit in Storm's End besieged by Stormland lords still loyal to the Targaryens. Jon Arryn is dead and the Vale is divided under the rule of his son, an ailing boy no older than Joffrey. Even a handful of houses from the Riverlands and the Crownlands rise for the dragonlords again.

Stannis calls on his remaining bannermen and finds mixed audiences. His good father brands Aegon a pretender and raises the bulk of the Westerlands in defence of his grandchildren's claim. Stannis calls on Ned Stark and swiftly binds Steffon and Sansa Stark in marriage before Steffon follows him into the war. He kisses his wife farewell and marches south to meet the new pretender as Aegon razes the Stormlands.

* * *

Cersei/Stannis is one of my rare ships, and I have often wondered how a marriage between those two could maybe have played out. I'm also playing around with ideas for a Daenerys-centric and a Elia/Jaime one-shot, and hopefully I can post a few times more before my winter break ends. I've also added a poll to my profile asking whether you prefer to read in past or present tense, so if you'd answer it, I'd really appreciate that. Thank you for reading!


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